TEHRAN – Iran’s tourism chief Ali-Asghar Mounesan on Saturday inaugurated the 21st Gachsar Tulip Festival which puts on show tens of thousands of flowers, CHTN reported. 

The opening ceremony was also attended by a number of cultural and tourism officials, their local fellows, and avid visitors in a garden located at kilometer 54 of the Karaj-Chalous road, Asara district of Alborz province.

The annual festival, starting a time between late April and early May, attracts thousands of domestic and international holidaymakers to the one-hectare garden, the report said.

Free training courses are being held for visitors on how to preserve ornamental flowers and become familiar with history and species of tulips.

A wide variety of floral species such as tulips grow or being bred across the Iranian plateau particularly on the central slopes of Alborz mountain range.

Inverted tulips are among the most unique and indigenous flora of Iran’s mountainous areas.

Tulip, or “Laleh” in Farsi, is known for its therapeutic abilities. It is also deeply rooted in the history and culture of the nation. The Tulip is a national symbol of martyrdom as well.

Flowers have also thrived into the Persian language. Many girls are named after flowers: Ra’na (Blanket Flowers), Shaghayegh (Anemone), Banafsheh (Violet), Yaasaman (Jasmine), Niloofar (Lotus flower), Nastaran (Eglantine), Laleh (Tulip), etc.

Some say that European tourists took the unique tulip species for the first time from Iran’s Zagros region to Austria and other European areas in 1576.

AFM/MG